political

The auto industry continues to resonate throughout this year’s presidential election.

Cyndy Canty spoke with Michigan Radio’s political analyst Jack Lessenberry and Daniel Howes, business columnist for the Detroit News, about the auto industry’s role in last night’s presidential debate.

“It drives home the point how important the industrial Midwest is in this election,” said Howes.

Obama suggested last night that Mitt Romney called for Detroit’s bankruptcy.

This was a point of contention for Mr. Romney and, according to Howes, for good reason.

This election year has seen a huge increase in the amount of money being spent on political campaigns compared to previous years. A lot of that money is being spent on negative political ads on TV.

As Michigan’s primary election gets closer, and the general election is only four months away, we’re going to see more and more political TV ads. And the bulk of those ads are going to be negative ads.

“I hear the negativity all the time. I’m tired of it. Tell me what it is you want to do not what you think the other guy is going to do," said Troy Hemphill.

“I don’t like to listen to that. I want some positive information," Kiirsten Olson insisted.

“Even when you think, ‘I’m not going to listen to negative ads, I’m not going to listen to negative ads,’ and then one creeps inside your brain. And then it sticks,” Shannon Rubago bemoaned.

Those are pretty typical responses of a couple of groups of people we talked to. We showed them a series of negative ads to see what their reactions would be.

The campaigns for Michigan candidates for Congress drew a lot of money from out of state.

The price tag for the Congressional campaigns comes in at about $40 million. Rich Robinson is with the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. He says the political parties in Washington, unions, and non-profits with anonymous contributors all chipped in.

“Of the $40 million, I’m estimating $16.8 million of that came from outside sources.”